First and foremost, I would like to thank Mica Ertegun for making it possible for me to write this book by giving me her unending cooperation and support. Without the help of Ahmet’s sister, Selma Goksel, who sent me countless e-mails from Turkey, I could never have reconstructed Mehmet Ertegun’s role in the formation of the Turkish republic or the childhood she shared with Ahmet and Nesuhi in Turkey, Switzerland, France, England, and Washington, D.C.
I will also be eternally grateful to Craig Inciardi, curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who opened the vault in New York for me so I could spend four days wearing white gloves as I examined the sixty boxes of Ahmet’s personal papers that now comprise the Ahmet Ertegun Archive at the Hall of Fame Library in Cleveland. Never failing to respond to my endless requests for more material, Craig also provided me with DVDs and videotapes I could never have found without him. Performing tasks above and beyond the call of duty, the inimitable Jesse Reiswig served as my research assistant in New York. I can never thank him enough for patiently reading Ahmet’s oral history interviews into a tape recorder so I could then transcribe them for this book.
Having worked for and with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone for the past forty years, I owe him a debt of gratitude for unearthing sources for me and for his continuing concern that I get everything right about Ahmet. I also want to thank his assistant Ally Lewis for her help. Merci beaucoup aussi to Mica’s assistant Monique Mirouze for putting up with all of my requests for information and for sending me digital copies of letters Ahmet had written that were not among his personal papers.
Had Will Dana, the managing editor of Rolling Stone, not asked me to write the tribute to Ahmet that appeared in the magazine shortly after his death, I would never have been able to write this book. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jason Fine, who was then the executive editor of Rolling Stone, who made that piece better than it would have been without him. He also arranged an invitation to Ahmet’s tribute at Lincoln Center, bought me lunch at Patsy’s so we could gaze at the hallowed doorway at 234 West 56th Street through which Ahmet, Jerry Wexler, and Ray Charles had once walked, and took me to dinner at the Waverly Inn, where I accosted Lyor Cohen for an interview. My thanks as well to Nicole Frehsee for all her help.
David Brendel provided me with valuable information. Richard Havers in England graciously sent me priceless material concerning Duke Ellington’s appearance at the Palladium in London. Catherine Tackley also provided me with information about this event. My thanks to Linda Moran for responding to questions no one else could have answered.
My thanks as well to Paul Wexler for the CD of the original version of “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.” I would like to thank Brian Higgins for providing me with material from the Lefsetz blog about Ahmet and patiently explaining the mathematics of publishing and songwriting royalties. Thanks to John Thompson for the Buffalo Springfield boxed set and for singing their songs with me on the streets of Rome that day. Thanks to Bonnie Simmons for the CD of Ahmet instructing Ray Charles how to sing “Mess Around.” My gratitude to Chris d’E. Vallencey in England for providing me with information about the cost of an Aston Martin in the mid-1950s. Thanks as well to Frances Chantly for graciously providing me with an actual ticket to the tribute to Ahmet at Lincoln Center.
My thanks to Paul Bresnick, who came up with the idea for this book, and then placed it with Simon & Schuster, where I have had the great good fortune of working with Bob Bender, who has been as patient and gracious throughout this long process as anyone I have ever known. Thanks as well to Johanna Li for all her aid. The always brilliant Josh Maurer helped me find the title for this book, which comes from a remark Veronique Simon made when I interviewed her.
Thanks to Craig Kallman for the guided tour of Ahmet’s office at Atlantic, to Bob Kaus for supplying the photos from the Atlantic Records Archive, and to Grayson Dantzic for all his help in locating and identifying them. Thanks as well to Ahmet’s good friend Jean Pigozzi for making his extensive collection of photographs of Ahmet available to me, and to Tasha Seren for all her help in compiling them.
Thanks to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for allowing me to use the photographs of Ahmet from their collection and to Jodi Peckman at Rolling Stone, who compiled the wonderful tribute book for Ahmet that was distributed at Lincoln Center and then uploaded all those images for me. My thanks to Michael Randolph for providing me with his father’s astonishing photographs of the golden days at Atlantic. Thanks to Brian Lipson, Bryan Besser, and the very erudite Eric Reid for all their help and sage advice. My thanks to Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker for helping me locate those who worked alongside George Trow at the magazine.
After seeing Ahmet in action during the Rolling Stones’ tour of America in 1972, I interviewed him for the first time while researching my book S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones. I then spoke to him again for Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out. I was also fortunate enough to have spent many hours on the phone with Jerry Wexler and then wrote the tribute to him in Rolling Stone following his death in 2008. Barbara Abramson was a great source of information and also sent me to the documentary Atlantic: Hip to the Tip as well as the Atlantic press release announcing Herb Abramson’s return to the label. Miriam Bienstock was also unfailingly gracious in responding to my many questions. I would also like to thank the late Charlie Gillett, who died shortly after I spoke to him, for having written Making Tracks, his book on Atlantic Records. Much like Ahmet, Charlie also truly loved the music. To the great Solomon Burke who passed on in 2010, rest in peace, rest in peace.
Closer to home, my thanks to Jeff Greenberg for bringing me The WPA Guide to Washington, D.C. and Ray Charles’s autobiography, Brother Ray. A true artist, Michele Frantz performed Photoshop wonders for me. Thanks to Kevin Daly for the unbelievable rock ’n’ roll golf tournament hookup and to all the boys at Monterey International for hanging out with me. Thanks to Bill Sagan, Nathan Nishiguchi, and Katherine York for providing me with a copy of my long-lost 1988 interview with Ahmet.
I would like to thank Donna for the author photograph and for putting up with the impossible work schedule I kept while writing this book. After all is said and done, she is the one with the gold record. As always, I send all my love and best wishes to Sandy and Anna.
Robert Greenfield
May 16, 2011